167 - It's all about money, real money, Billions and Billions of dollars in money, just for Metro, not to mention changes in property values and taxes.
Here are some snippets from several Houston Chronicle articles, on Metro. There are lots more to be seen if you just go to any of the links:
Hermann the Cherusker
Although $116 million is a small fraction of the $7.5 billion Metro proposes to spend in the next 22 years to expand the region's transit system, rail opponents used the figure to denounce the authority's budgeting. For example, a mailer this week from the anti-rail group Texans for True Mobility states, "U.S. Department of Transportation Notifies Metro -- Your Numbers Are Off By Tens of Millions."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/ec/metrorail/2176223 Tony Banash, who makes a two-hour commute between Long Beach and the San Fernando Valley on two trains and a bus, said Houston voters shouldn't support a bad plan. The Blue Line, taking an hour to cover its 22-mile route, resembles the system Metro is planning. The Green and Gold lines, on the other hand, mostly have an exclusive right of way and travel much faster.
"The street running has been an endless nightmare," Banash said as his Blue Line train crawled through dilapidated neighborhoods south of downtown L.A. "Don't build it in the street."
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/ec/metrorail/2164522 Metro budget battle all about the bucks
According to Metro's latest projections -- drawn up by staff over the weekend -- it will spend $681 million in federal money through 2009. The FTA, in projections released last week through the U.S. House Appropriations Committee and in a letter to Culberson, states Metro will receive $573 million -- a discrepancy of $108 million.
Rail opponents said the release of Metro's figures Monday did not sway them. Stevens said Metro is asking voters to authorize a $4.6 billion expansion plan, including 22 more miles of light rail, "that effectively handles 1 percent of the traffic in the region and will begin that with no money in the bank and a negative cash flow by 2005."
If the FTA numbers prove correct and Metro continues to see a drop in sales tax revenue, the authority will be $75 million in the hole in two years, Stevens contends.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/ec/metrorail/2141453Only $200,000,000 per mile for the Toonerville Trolley? I am impressed with the slickness of the waste. We build subways for that price up here, so at the end of the day we have something to show for it. Our trolley lines tend to cost about $20,000,000 per mile at most, generally much less for in-street ones.
I wonder where all the money is going?